Kim Min-jun (; born January 15, 1988), better known by his stage name Jun. K, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, dancer and actor. He is the main vocalist of 2PM.
Formerly known as Kim Jun-su (Hangul : 김준수), he revealed on October 17, 2012, that due to family reasons, he would be changing his name to Min-jun, though his stage name would remain the same.
Jun. K is the writer and the composer of 2PM's title songs, "Go Crazy","My House" and "With Me Again". He also wrote and composed many b-side tracks for 2PM.
Aside from his group activities, Jun. K has released 3 digital singles, 2 extended plays in South Korea and 1 digital single, 4 extended plays in Japan, his first three Japanese albums which peaked at number two on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart. His second Japanese album Love Letter ranked number one on both Billboard Japan "Top" and "Hot" album sales charts. His first Korean album, Mr. NO♡, debuted at number nine on Billboard World Albums chart. His third Japanese album "No Shadow" ranked number two on Billboard Japan "Top" and "Hot" album sales charts. His fourth Japanese album No Time ranked number three on the Oricon daily sales chart.
Early life
Kim Minjun was born in Daegu, South Korea and attended Dong-ah Institute of Media and Arts. Prior to singing, he had entered and won various poem and songwriting contests. He attended Kyunghee University's Media Information Graduate School for his master's degree.
He originally auditioned for YG Entertainment, where he befriended G-Dragon and Taeyang of Big Bang. He was accepted into both YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment, and ended up signing with the latter. He remains close friends with both members of BigBang.
Career
2008–2010: Debut with 2 pm and solo activities
Jun. K was chosen as the main vocalist of 2PM. The group officially debuted on September 4, 2008.
During a 2 pm fanmeeting in 2009, he performed his composition "Hot" for the first time for his solo. "Hot" was later recorded by all six members and included on their second studio album Hands Up (2011). In 2010, he collaborated with composer Jung Woo on the track "Tok Tok Tok" released in August, provided guest vocals for then-labelmate San E's song "B.U.B.U." (an acronym for "Break Up Back Up"), released in September as part of his first extended play, and teamed up with other idols and singers for the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit campaign song "Let's Go," released in October.
2011–2013: Solo debut and musical role
On October 7, 2011, Jun. K released his debut single "Alive". The accompanying music video was uploaded to 2PM's official YouTube channel three days later. The song quickly climbed the charts and became number one on Cyworld. On March 14, 2012, it was released as a ringtone on Japan's Recochoku ahead of 2 pm's greatest hits album 2PM Best: 2008–2011 in Korea, where it could also be found as a bonus track in Limited Edition B. "Alive" managed to quickly rank in at number one on the daily chart. Following this, JYP Entertainment stated that the song "shows a deeper look into Jun. K's unique musical world. It has a smooth beat that reveals a new charm to the singer." He also recorded "Love... Goodbye" for the soundtrack of the Korean drama I Love Lee Tae-ri. It served as the male lead's theme. He began his acting career in 2012 with played in musical theatre The Three Musketeers. Jun. K played as D'Artagnan. He played Daniel in the musical, Jack the Ripper in early 2013.
In December 2013, He participated again on musical The Three Musketeers to performed in Tokyo, Japan.
2014–present: Solo activities
In an interview with The Star in 2014, Jun. K revealed that Oricon's editor-in-chief had said Love and Hate was the number one album released in Japan that year and expressed his gratitude: "When I heard this I felt even better. I have really worked hard without any rest since December last year. I tried my best to prepare it, but I'm really thankful to everyone who helped me achieve this good result, and everyone who congratulated me."
Jun. K's Love & Hate concert tour ranked in the top 10 best concerts in Japan by Ranking Box, for having one of the most impressive live concerts of 2014, making him the only K-pop artist on the list. The editor-in-chief stated, "The album I personally listened to the most this year is Jun.K's solo album, 'Love & Hate', which was released in May. He's an artist who has an outstanding ability as a singer-songwriter, impressive voice tone, and musical talent. His solo live concert was rich with not only lyrical music but expressiveness as well."